Decade's Best: Casino Royale

Barbara Broccoli talks us through Bond's reboot...

Total Film catches up with Bond supremos Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson to hear the thinking behind the most successful reboot in the super-spy’s history… and, yes, to try and prise a few details out of them about Bond 23…

TOTAL FILM : So… Bond is our Reboot Of The Decade.

BARBARA BROCCOLI : Well, that’s wonderful! Thank you very much.

TF: Of course, Bond has been rebooted before, say from the fantastical Moonraker to the more down-to-earth For Your Eyes Only . But with Die Another Day making a small fortune, what prompted the grittier approach?

BB: Well… September 11 happened and it felt inappropriate for the films to continue down that fantastical path.

So we decided to move to a more serious Bond. And we had acquired the rights to Casino Royale in… when was it Michael – 2000?

MICHAEL G WILSON: 1999, I think…

BB: 1999. And of course that’s the ‘Holy Grail’ of the Bond books. You know, the one that Cubby and Harry had wanted to start with and the rights weren’t available.

I mean you know the history… it’s not been made particularly well either time. So we were working on another script and we kind of got stuck and then Michael said, “You know, I really want to do Casino Royale .”

And I said, “That’s a great idea, let’s do it.”

TF: It is, as you say, the Holy Grail of the Bond books. And probably quite a personal project as well, given the history.

Did you feel under particular pressure not to screw it up?

MW: Absolutely.

And we were determined to keep the key elements from the book – Barbara told every writer and director we spoke to: Vesper has to die at the end; James has to say ‘the bitch is dead’ and there has to be the torture scene.

And in our films, how do you do that well without undermining the ratings? It was a challenge, but Martin [Campbell, director] came up with it and of course, Daniel was fantastic.

TF : Although it paid off in the end, did you feel at the time that you were taking quite a big gamble with the franchise?

BB: It just felt like the right thing to do.

Michael and I of course were partnered with Sony for the first time and Amy Pascal who’s the head of Columbia Pictures was initially really excited that she was going to get a Bond movie… and then we sat down with her and explained our plans! [Laughs]

“We’re going do another Bond; it’s not going to be Pierce; we’re going back to Casino Royale ; there’s a 20-minute card game in the middle of the movie; he falls in love; she betrays him; she commits suicide; he gets beaten…”

To her credit though, although she had to get her head around it, she was fully behind us; she backed us 100 per cent.

TF: It doesn’t sound like it was an easy sell…

BB: Amy said, “Well, it’s good that we’ll have Q in it.” We said, “No there’s no Q.”

TF: Do you yet have any specific priorities with Bond 23 – funnier, lighter, anything?

MW: Well… we’ve hired the writers [Purvis and Wade again, plus Peter Morgan] and we’ve been working with them but it’s just too early to say anything.

You know, often at this stage, I find myself saying, “Oh, we’re gonna do this and that”, then six months from now you’ll say, “That isn’t in the film at all – you told me it was…”

I think we’re at that stage where a lot of ideas are floating around that sound very good, but whether they make the final cut, who knows?

TF : Do you have a timeline for script, filming and release?

MW: Well, our timeline’s a little up in the air what with the situation with MGM [who may be sold, or involved in a merger], so we have to be flexible.

We just don’t know enough about the situation to comment, but we know it’s uncertain.

TF: We’ll soon see the release of James Cameron’s Avatar , which many believe could change the ‘blockbuster’ landscape forever.

Can you foresee a time when Bond might go 3D?

BB: The Avatar trailer looks fantastic and I’m excited to see the movie.

You know what, directors like Cameron, they’re fantastic because they get everybody excited about movies.

We’ve always said that the better the competition, the better for us, because all we hope for is that people keep going to the cinema and that movies keep breaking barriers and becoming more and more exciting.